86 VEGETATION. 



Pierardi, longicornu, and sulcatum. The next genus in importance, 

 Coelogyne (including the section Pleione, popularly known in Europe 

 as Himalayan crocuses), comprises about 20 species, of which crisfata 

 is the most in favour with orchid fanciers in Europe. It has egg- 

 shaped bulbs on long trailing stems, and very large snow-white 

 flowers with a yellow stained lip, on long racemes. It may be seen 

 clothing rocks and the stems of large trees between 4,000 and 6,000 

 feet. Corymhosa and ochracea are similarly coloured, but much smaller, 

 the former being found up to 9,000 and the latter to 7,000 feet. Both 

 are very common. There are four sj^ecies of the section Pleionc, 

 all of them pretty. They are stemless, their flowers springing from 

 a pseudo bulb, usually when bare of leaves. The most abundant is 

 pnecox, which has large rosy-purple flowers, and is found between 

 5,000 and 8,000 feet. It flowers in the autumn. 3Iaculata, which 

 flowers at the same season, is white spotted with purple, and is not 

 uncommon on the stems of sal trees between 2,500 and 3,500 feet. 

 Hitmilis flowers in the spring at elevations from 6,000 feet upwards, 

 and is wliite, streaked brown on the lip. The fourth species, 

 Ilookeriana^ ascends as high as 10,000 feet, and produces rosy-purple 

 flowers about the beginning of the rainy season. There are about 

 10 sorts of Cj/mbidiumf the most of them with long grassy leaves and 

 many-flowered drooping racemes. The majority of them belong to 

 the cool forests above 5,000 feet, but a few are natives of the hottest 

 valleys. Eburneum, which is one of the hot valley sorts, has large 

 ivory coloured flowers, faintly stained with peach on the lip, and sweet 

 scented. Giganteum and (jrandijlorum are very fine sorts of the cooler 

 forests. Arachnanthc Cathcarlil^ which was considered by the great 

 botanist, Lindley, to have the most remarkably shaped flowers of 

 all orchids, grows on trees, in densely shaded places, between 2,000 

 and 4,500 feet. It has thick, fleshy flowers, of 2^ inches diameter, 

 whitish, closely barred with chocolate, and the lip curiously hinged. 

 PJnjnchostijlls retusa and JErides offine, of the hot valleys, have both 

 bottle-brush spikes of flowers of a purplish colour; and jErides odoratum 

 and Saccolabium amjnillaceum, of the same parts, are favourite 

 species. 



The terrestrial species, on the whole, do not at present hold a high 

 place in popular estimation, but many of them are well worth cultivat- 

 ing. Phajus WaUic/iii, which grows in marshy places, below 4,000 feet 

 elevation, has large, richly coloured flowers on spikes over 2 feet high, 

 and Arundina hamhusa'folia exceeds 6 feet in height, and flowers more 

 or less during the greater part of the year. Its flowers, which are 

 large, are of a pinkish colour with a bright purple lip. AnoectocJdlus 

 Moxhurghii is a small plant with velvety leaves netted with golden 

 nerves, and grows under shade between 2,000 and 4,000 feet; and 



